Esther Perel was a hands-on consultant for The Invite. Her concept — that you can have an entirely new relationship with the same person rather than needing to leave — became a philosophical goalpost the writers worked toward. Penélope Cruz's character is essentially a cinematic Esther Perel.
Where this was said
At 1:32:45 · chapter starts 1:26:10
The Invite originated from a Spanish play that's been adapted in South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain — each version culturally distinct despite sharing the same premise. Rashida Jones and Will McCormick wrote the English version. Olivia introduces Esther Perel as a consultant and describes the film's central casting: Seth Rogen as a bottomed-out 'sad dad' who lives in his parents' apartment, Olivia as his anxiety-ridden wife, Edward Norton as their dangerously charming upstairs neighbor, and Penélope Cruz as his partner — essentially a cinematic Esther Perel, after Olivia introduced the two on Zoom and watched them ignite. The film was shot in order on film stock, with the cast workshopping the script throughout production. The ending wasn't confirmed until one week before they filmed it. The crew watched rehearsals like a theater audience, clapping at the end of scenes.
The reported on-set drama around Don't Worry Darling was almost entirely fabricated, Olivia Wilde says — the entire crew wrote a letter saying so and nobody cared. Jennifer Garner warned Wilde years earlier: once the media casts you as a character in their soap opera, the narrative runs on its own.
The Invite stars Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde as a strained couple and Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz as their dangerously compelling upstairs neighbors, based on a Spanish play adapted across multiple countries.
AI nailed Andrew Huberman's vertigo-vs-low-blood-pressure diagnosis because that pattern has been reported millions of times. But every patient's liver is different and data on liver surgeries is scarce worldwide — making solo robot surgery dangerous. The rule is simple: data abundance means AI can help; data scarcity means keep the human in the loop.
Fei-Fei Li's father had liver surgery performed by a da Vinci robot guided by a surgeon. The result: 10 times less blood loss than a typical procedure. This isn't replacement — it's the gold standard of human-machine collaboration, where the human's judgment and the robot's precision combine.
US drug overdose deaths fell from 110,000 to roughly 70,000 — the biggest CDC-recorded single-year drop ever. Men's rates fell 27% in one year, and the steepest decline of all was among 15–24-year-olds, down 37%. The crisis narrative around young men needs to make room for signs of genuine progress.
Kessler thought his grief expertise would protect him. It didn't. When his son David died unexpectedly, he found himself on the floor — and eventually realized that acceptance alone wasn't enough. That unmet need became the sixth stage: finding meaning.
Grief isn't just death — it's any unwanted change. Kessler lectured at Coca-Cola and General Mills not because they had lots of funerals, but because change management is grief management. People who grieve well live well.
Witnessing someone's grief isn't just emotional support — it's an essential act of healing. Kessler argues grief is a severance and connection heals it. But real witnessing has two steps: seeing the pain AND affirming the person's capacity to recover.
Avoiding grief isn't free — it's exhausting. Kessler's beach ball metaphor nails it: pushing a small balloon down is easy, but holding a massive beach ball underwater takes constant, draining energy. Unattended feelings don't disappear; they just consume you.
Most people try to control their environment to avoid triggers. Kessler flips this entirely: triggers aren't problems to manage around — they're a detailed map to your pain and your healing. Every trigger points directly to what needs attention.
Running from pain doesn't leave it behind — it accelerates the chase. Whatever we run from pursues us, and whatever we face transforms us. Both Kessler and Lewis Howes testify to knowing both roads firsthand.
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